Premiere Versioning Scripts?

[boomboomactionparty]

This question comes from an operational animator-editor-producer, not a coder-developer, so please accept my contrition in advance if the wording of this question is sub-optimal for this forum.

It is my fifth day as a PrEditor for a Animation/VFX Co. here in Austin. My EP asked me yesterday about the possibility of a script for Premiere that would scan a directory (with multiple sub-directories,) find the latest version of a media file (presumably based upon a segment of a filename,) and update the corresponding clip in the sequence with that latest file.

As a piece of media works through the animation pipeline, it iterates through rigging, animation, lighting, effects, composite, etc. Each output from those departments generates a file in a directory. Files are not overwritten as a general rule, so XYZ_anim_V1 becomes a V2. The anim could become XYZ_comp_V1 after that file moves through compositing in the comp directory.

In a perfect world, we would open a master PP project, the script would run, and all the movies would be updated with the latest version irrespective of which directory the file is in. A review of the sequence could then ensue that would reliably be a visual holistic status for the animation project.

Does such a script or solution or the ability to create a solution exist?

[Bruce Bullis · Accepted solution]

The behavior you've described should be possible today, from within an HTML5-based PPro panel. How's your JavaScript?

Here's the sample PProPanel: Samples/PProPanel at master · Adobe-CEP/Samples · GitHub

Here's "How to set up a panel dev system": Samples/ReadMe.md at master · Adobe-CEP/Samples · GitHub

Work through the readme, play with the sample, and feel free to ask me anything.

[boomboomactionparty]

Thanks, Bruce. Your answer is working its way through the IT braintrust over here.